Tuesday TwitterdeedumKnapweed

Spotted Knapweed:  I always wondered about that ubiquitous purple "flower" which has blossomed every late summer and thrived in the southwest flower bed of our yard.

When we first moved here, the flower beds were filled with wonderful shrubs and perennials, planted several years ago by a professional landscaper. 

I was afraid to touch anything in those beds during weeding time, lest I pull the good stuff. So, unless I was absolutely sure that some of the foliage was either tansy or ferns,  I left the other plants. 

Well, this year I decided that the purple stuff, which seems to get thicker every year, had to be a weed.  

So, this past week I spent two days off and on working at it, either pulling it roots and all or cutting it.  I wore latex gloves while working, but must admit that I was not very careful when removing them.  

In recent news accounts, after seeing the care that is needed for the medical workers, donning and removing their protective gear while treating Ebola patients, I must say that the need to be more careful with gloves has become much clearer to me. 

Anyway, when I was finished with my eradication project, the flower bed looked pretty good after that purple stuff and those always-thriving tansy plants had been removed and hauled away to the nearby woods. 

Shortly after that big weeding project, I developed a stubborn, itchy rash on my arms. 

What else is new for the Itch Queen?

A few days later, I asked my sisters and a friend to look at the rash.  

"You've gotten into something," they all concluded, suggesting I must be pretty allergic to whatever it was.

The rash is slowly subsiding, and I've been very careful NOT to scratch.  I also notice that it reacts to warmth, and when I'm outside, it almost disappears. 

Last night Bill went for a walk in the woods.  Upon returning, he suggested that he may have found the culprit for my rash.

"Spotted knapweed," he said. 

"Where?" I asked.

"In that flower bed," he responded, "all those weeds you pulled are knapweed."  

Then he told me how last year he put some seed-head weevils in the flower bed, in an attempt to keep the knapweed from going to seed. 

Just now, he told me that it takes these weevils a while to do their job and now that I've removed the seed heads, the weevils don't have anything to eat.

Here I must interject that Bill never mentioned the knapweed presence, probably because he assumed that I knew what those plants were.  

For some reason, I did not think we had knapweed this far north, and the variety in my flower bed doesn't look much like that which we see along roadsides in dryer areas south of Sandpoint. 

So all this lack of knowledge and communication has led to starving weevils and itching Marianne----what a combo!

I lamented to Bill, upon hearing his information about the knapweed and weevils, that I sure do suffer from all my outdoor work-----work that I dearly love. 

Doesn't mean I have any intentions to quit----just must be more careful.  

Always learning and often suffering while doing so. 

Happy Tuesday.